Winter Weather Leads To More Travel Delays

by Joel Young, Meteorologist/Reporter
February 08, 2013 6:29 PM


The winter storm that is dumping tremendous amounts of snowfall across the Northeast is causing major travel delays, and Sioux Falls is no exception. In fact, with more winter weather in the forecast, more delays are expected.

By Friday afternoon, heavy snowfall was moving into parts of the northeast leading to blizzard conditions from Boston to New York City.

Although the worst blizzard conditions are being felt on the East Coast, its impacts may be felt at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport; so if you’re flying anywhere over the next few days, you’re going to want to keep up with your flight status.

“Use the Internet. Go to each airline’s particular website to check flight status. You can access their reservations on that airline’s website to see if they’ve been rescheduled to something else,” says Dan Letellier, Executive Director at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport.

Although Sharon Beedle of Mitchell is going in the opposite direction toward Seattle to visit her brother for a few days, she's prepared for the next storm system that may be affecting our region over the weekend.

“I thought, ‘if I’m stranded someplace, I need to have a few extra outfits,’ and then the medication was important,” says Beedle.

“Certainly, if you’re traveling with any kind of medicine, anything that you have to have, make sure you’re traveling with that in your carry-on luggage,” says Letellier.

Most of all, airport officials remind us to keep in mind our own safety while traveling to the airport. If interstates are closed down and roadways are too dangerous, it isn’t worth risking your life.

“Don’t chance it. You can always get rebooked for a later flight. Don’t take chances by coming and driving to the airport in blizzard conditions,” says Letellier.

Airport officials also say airlines will be allowing people to make changes to their flight routing with no additional change fees. If you’d like to find out more on how to track your flight statuses in and out of Sioux Falls, you can visit the airport’s website at www.sfairport.com.